Freezer Wraps: For Long-Term Need and Small Appetities

I want to tell you a sad story.  Once there were loving parents (us) who let their child and teen go spend three weeks of the summer with their adoring grandparents.  The grandchildren were happy.  The grandparents were thrilled.  The mother and the best friend of the teenager were despondent.  So they decided to do a service project to cheer up. 

Zoey, my daughter’s best friend is one of the teens in my life.  They are all awesome but she has a special place in my heart and when she came up to me this summer while my girl was gone and asked when we could make food for our favorite elderly couple again, I was thrilled.  She’s an awesome kid with a really compassionate heart.  And besides, who doesn’t love to cook?!

The last time we did this, we made lasagna.  Yum.  Homemade lasagna is ridiculous good and calorically dense an important consideration since our friend’s appetites are small and their caloric needs high (the exact opposite of my family’s needs!).  But we gave them more than they could eat. 

So it was time for an alternate plan!

We decided to make mexican wraps.  The benefit of these little guys is that we could make 3 dozen, wrap them individually in aluminum foil and then our friends could pull them out whenever they wanted.  

I wanted to share the method here for you today because I suspect there may be situations in your life too where you need to provide small but frequent portions over a period of several months.  Say for example a single friend breaks a leg.  She won’t be able to cook for herself for 6 weeks.  A casserole is great but its more than she can eat and only feeds her for a short period of time.  On the other hand a dozen of these will give her a meal a week with no waste for the whole six weeks.  3 dozen would feed a family of 3 once a week for 6 weeks!  And trust me they were a lot easier than making 6 casseroles!  These are also gluten free as long as you choose corn tortillas.

On to the recipe.

I’m happy to share with you exactly how we made ours but I suspect that you have a favorite wrap filling at your house and it would work just as well with a single caveat.  It needs to be pasty and thick.  A runny filling or one that crumbles won’t work as well. We snuck some corn and carrots in our Mexican rice.  Vegetables are always good.

Ingredients (for 3 dozen wraps)

3 cups cooked black beans drained

3 cups cooked Mexican rice 

1 cup cheddar cheese

1 cup finely chopped onion 

1 teaspoon cumin 

1/2 cup of salsa

1/2 pound chorizo

1 pound ground pork

36 corn tortillas

In a giant bowl mix the first six ingredients together.  

Put both kinds of meat in a skillet and fry them together, scrambling the meat as you go.

Add it into the giant bowl and stir well.  

Taste.  (My chorizo, black beans and rice were already salty so when I combined them I did not need more salt.  If your ingredients were less salty or unsalted you will need to season here.)

Add a large spoonful to each corn tortilla.  

Wrap like a soft taco.  

Place on a sheet of aluminum foil, wrapping tightly and sealing the edges.  

Place 12 of these in freezer bag and freeze. 

Inside each bag place a slip of paper with these instructions: 

Preheat oven to 350.

Place frozen wraps on sheet pan. (Don’t remove foil)

Cook for around 30 minutes. 

Enjoy.

Notes:  Corn tortillas can be difficult to work with.  They like to crack and crumble.  You could fry them in oil to solve this problem or warm them on a dry griddle.  Otherwise if your recipients don’t mind the gluten you can simply use small flour tortillas.  

Food is one of the good gifts of God.  It is one of the gifts we can share with people we care about not only to make their life easier but to express our love.  And if you can get a warm-hearted and lovely young lady to help you do it, all the better!

Helene